Friday, February 16, 2007

Montoya and McDonald's

Formula One refugee Juan Pablo Montoya makes his NASCAR debut this Sunday, in the Daytona 500. (www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/56778). Montoya is my type of driver: audacious, unpredictable, spectacular, hot-headed, flamboyant, and spontaneous. Montoya enjoys racing and overtaking, and driving cars which oversteer. This is how Grand Prix drivers should be.

Sadly, success in Formula One now requires drivers to be dispassionate and analytical, and Montoya quit F1 in the middle of last season, unable to compete against team-mate Raikkonen in a McLaren car which suffered from understeer.

Montoya also got a bit of stick in F1 for his comparative lack of, how shall I say, gastronomic asceticism. Thing is, Montoya likes a burger or two. This is what he had to say to the NASCAR press last week:

Everyone gave me crap because I ate McDonald's. I like it. What do you want me to say?...Many years ago, I ate at McDonalds's in every country just to taste the difference. And, believe me, there is a difference in the way it tastes from country to country!

Hmm. He's right about the McD's. I think each franchise uses the cattle from the country it's in and beef tastes dif. depending on what the animals ate: clover, hay, grass, etc. But I haven't eaten there since my kids were small -- too grease-drenched and calorie laden. The blast of fat tends to makes me feel sick a little while later.

However, my first job was at McDonald's when I was 14: I (wo-)manned the fry machine and got a spectacular burn in a grid pattern on the inside of my left forearm within the first month. It was there for years before finally disappearing.

Gordon, & others, what were your first jobs? (Mine would probably tell you right away that I'm from America.)

The chap who used to sit opposite me at work until last Friday: his first job was at McDonald's. He rose to be a store manager, and learnt a hell of lot about managing people. He also had loads of interesting anecdotes. For example, they would do burgers in the toasters if people ordered just before they were about to close; easier to clean the toasting machines you see. Then he started work as a computer programmer, and people treated him like he had no managerial experience.

Anyway, my first job was in air traffic control research. I was spoilt.

You didn't have any part-time jobs while still a teenager? I worked at McDonald's, then our local library (loved that one), and later at Pier One Imports and Pizza Hut. Paid for clothes, car insurance, gas.

Perhaps you were like the boy who lives next door to us: 13 and making serious bucks every month in chess tournaments. (I won't be a bit surprised if you tell us you're a Grand Master -- people with great math skills are often excellent chess players.) Or, maybe you were just a rich kid and didn't ever have to work. If so, lucky you Gordon!